General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The General Data Protection Regulation, known as GDPR, was approved by the European Union in April 2016 and is scheduled to go into effect on May 25, 2018. It is the most sweeping legislation in the last two decades focused on data security and privacy, and significantly updates, extends, and harmonises data protection legislation across the EU/EEA.

ManageBac has been committed to data privacy for over 10 years and welcomes the new regulation. We will do our part to ensure that all our customers are GDPR compliant by May 2018.

Who is subject to GDPR?

Individuals, organisations and companies that control or process personal data are subject to GDPR. In broad terms, there are three different actors:

Data subjects (students, families, school employees)

Data controllers (the school)

Data processors (systems like ManageBac & OpenApply)

As a data processor, we do not decide the purpose or lawfulness of the data we process and store. We are trustees acting on our customers’ behalf. As data controllers, schools remain ultimately responsible for documenting and deciding how data enters our systems. However, GDPR regulations do impose new and stricter regulations on processors. We will fully comply with these requirements for all of our services, including ManageBac, OpenApply, and Integration partners.

How is GDPR different from current data protection laws?

Key areas of difference center on increased accountability for companies, greater access to personal data for individuals, and higher penalties for non-compliance.

GDPR explicitly lays out key rights of data subjects:

right to be informed

right of rectification

right of erasure

right to restrict processing

right of data portability

right to object

right of access

These rights form the framework for interactions between the data subject, controller, and processor. While the controller (school) remains responsible for respecting these rights, the processor (us) may assist in accomplishing these tasks.

The penalties for non-compliance are not insubstantial. A school found in violation of GDPR may be assessed fines worth up to 4% of total annual revenue. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is responsible for enforcing GDPR and has a broad range of powers to do so.

What kind of data is covered, and what information are schools allowed to collect?

All personal data concerning an individual (data subject) is included under GDPR. Specifically, personal data that allows an individual to be identified — for example name, address, phone number, photo, etc. — is included under GDPR.

Even if personal data has been encrypted, pseudonymised, or anonymized, it may still fall under the scope of GDPR if the data can still be used to identify a specific individual.

For most schools, the legal basis for data collection relates to either legal obligations as learning institutions, or to legitimate interests.

Most of the bases require that the data processing is necessary, i.e. if you can reasonably achieve the same results and purpose without processing data, then you do not have a lawful basis.

Is ManageBac GDPR-compliant?

We will be as of May 25, 2018. As one of the world’s only learning platforms with ISO 27001:2013 information security certification, we are well prepared for the upcoming GDPR changes with a strong set of organisational and technical security measures. ManageBac has been designed from the start with personal data protection in mind, and we pride ourselves on offering schools, students, and parents the highest level of security.

We have spent the last year analysing the new requirements and making changes in our services and internal workflows. In the next few months, we will provide you with documentation, contract addenda, and suggested protocols that you may need to prove your compliance. On our side, we expect to be fully compliant by the end of Q1 2018, well in time for the new regulations.

As a part of our commitment to GDPR, you can expect ManageBac to:

Ensure organisational and technical security for all services.

Assist with documentation to demonstrate compliance and keep users informed.

We cannot directly advise our schools on GDPR compliance, aside from recommending that you seek legal advice as soon as possible, and appoint a team to begin reviewing your current data processing practices. Most of our schools in Europe will be required to appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO), who oversees your compliance requirements and reports directly to senior management.

In general, GDPR will require you to explicitly record and evaluate how personal data is processed and used. At a minimum, you will need to fully review user data end-to-end, justify why you hold it (using one of the legal bases), for how long you will retain it, and conduct a security review. The purpose of every data point you hold must be defined.

When adopting new technology platforms that involve personal data, you will need to perform a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA). You are expected to monitor and ensure that the systems you use are GDPR compliant.

Lastly, because individual rights have been strengthened under GDPR, we strongly recommend making your users aware of their rights, and establishing clear procedures for responding when users exercise those rights.

I have heard that ManageBac is not secure enough under GDPR! Is this true?

GDPR does not specify precise security requirements for cloud-based services. As a data processor, we have a shared responsibility with our schools (controllers) to provide appropriate organisational and technical security, and be able to demonstrate it. GDPR strengthens the liabilities and penalties for companies that are unable to demonstrate those security protocols.

For over a decade, ManageBac has successfully protected data from millions of users. We continue to invest in organisational security, network and infrastructure security, and application security to ensure we can offer world-class security beyond standard requirements. We regularly allow third parties to audit our security measures, and we invite customers to perform their own audits.

We are careful not to provide explicit detail about our security measures but our standard protocols include:

Procedural security: IT management processes to minimize the risk of human errors, or testing regimes to identify software weaknesses before releasing new features to our cloud services, or policies to ensure data is only processed on instruction from our customers.

How does ManageBac obtain personal data about users, and how is it used?

User data is submitted to our platforms in three ways:

directly by the users

by representatives authorised by the users (e.g. the school technology director obtains data and then uploads it to our platform)

We use personal data under our protection only when we receive direct instructions from the customer school. The data stored on our systems belongs directly our customers, and only a handful of ManageBac staff have access to personal data under strict confidentiality and security. We process personal data independently only if it is vital to the integrity or security of the service, or to analyze or evaluate the quality of the service provided.

Can any of our users request data deletion under the “right to be forgotten”?

Likely not. A data deletion request is valid only if the lawful basis of the processing is Consent (see above), or if the original purpose is no longer valid.

We strongly recommend that our schools implement clear processes for evaluating these kinds of requests. Our Data Protection Officer can also assist with advice in difficult cases. If a data subject is granted the right to be deleted, ManageBac will, either through our software or our support services, help execute these rights and confirm the deletion.

When does ManageBac delete personal data?

ManageBac deletes personal data when instructed by our customers, or if the contract between us and the customer is terminated. The procedures around deleting customer data upon termination of service should be provided in writing or in a Data Processor Agreement.

An instruction to delete a user in our services can either be manually performed in the platform by a customer representative or upon request to our support team.

When users are deleted in our systems, there are safeguards in place to prevent errors leading to an irreplaceable loss of data. In many cases customers will have to manually confirm the deletion of customer data, including personal data.

Are we required to provide the personal data that we store on a user when requested?

To a limited degree, yes. Your users have strong rights to transparency, information, and data access. Any data subject can request a copy of all personal data stored, provided that it does not adversely impact other users, or if the data is not already directly available.

Please note this is not an absolute right. There are other laws in place that require you to protect the data subject and others from accessing certain kinds of information. Again, we strongly recommend that you implement a clear process for evaluating this kind of request, and our Data Protection Officer can assist in difficult cases. If you grant a data subject the right of access, we will, either through our software or our support services, help execute these rights.

Our systems were built for transparency across all stakeholder groups, so the majority of data stored about a user is directly accessible via the individual user profile.

Can a user contact ManageBac directly (e.g. student, parent, teacher) to exercise his rights under GDPR?

No. Under GDPR, the data subject (user) rights is between him and the controller (our customers). Any data subject requests from end users to ManageBac will be handed over to the customer. ManageBac will cooperate in good faith with customers to ensure they can exercise the rights of the data subjects in a prompt manner.

Does ManageBac send data to third parties?

No, unless we receive instruction / confirmation from our customers or have a legal obligation to do so.

Schools often request that we integrate with a third-party tool or service, or setup this integration directly themselves using our publicly available APIs. We take steps to prevent customers from sending data to 3rd parties without complying with data protection regulations. However, it is important that our customers themselves implement safeguards to ensure that data transfer occurs in adherence with regulation.

Will ManageBac notify users if a data breach has occurred?

Depending on the nature of the data breach, our customers might be required to promptly notify both the users affected and the supervising authorities. ManageBac is required to notify its customers when becoming aware of a data breach, and to help them in fulfill obligations in notifying users.

Can I require a cloud service provider, like ManageBac, to only host personal data in my country?

One of the GDPR’s primary objectives is the free flow of personal data inside the European Economic Area (EEA), under one common regulation. In most cases, restricting vendors in processing data across the EEA would not be permitted under GDPR.

Does ManageBac process data outside the EEA? Is it allowed to process data outside the EEA?

GDPR does not forbid personal data to flow outside the EEA, but expects that any data processing outside the EEA is done following the same principles.

In addition, controllers or processors that process data outside the EEA must provide detailed information about the nature of the processing. In some cases, they must also allow customers or users to object to the processing.

Note that the European Commission has recognized Canada as a jurisdiction with ‘adequate’ data protection. To learn more, click here.

Does GDPR impact customers outside the EU?

Not legally. The EU, obviously, has no legislative power over other jurisdictions. GDPR does not offer any rights or freedoms to data subjects located outside the EU, and does not put obligations on non-EU customers that do not process data on EU/EEA data subjects.

However, ManageBac offers, for the most part, the same services and same level of security to all our customers. In other words, no matter where your school is located, you will benefit from our approach to security of personal data under GDPR.

Who do I contact with further questions?

For general questions related to ManageBac you can always contact our support team at support@managebac.com. For contractual or commercial questions, please contact your Regional Director.

For specific GDPR-related questions from our customers, please contact our Data Protection Officer Oleh Khomey. In addition to monitoring our own compliance and providing advice and training to our own staff, our DPO will be available to our customers and their DPOs to discuss data privacy issues.

He can be reached at dpo@managebac.com. Please note that any communication with our DPO must be in English.

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